Infant cries are complex stimuli, capable of eliciting both empathic and aggressive behaviors in others. Cries of preterm infants have been described as aversive, and as potential elicitors of child abuse. This research examines developmentally, children's response patterns to pre-term and full-term infant cries. Children's affective and behavioral reactions to a crying infant were obtained. Later, children made ratings of intensities of emotions (empathy, fear, anger) aroused by tape-recordings of cries. Children ranging in age from 4 to 11 showed similar levels of empathy and similar rates of empathic interventions in response to preterm and full-term infant cries. They expressed more anger in response to full-term than preterm cues. A majority of children were able to verbally distinguish between the two cry types along dimensions of abnormality and illness.